protest

In her new book Seven Stories of Threatening Speech: Women’s Suffrage Meets Machine Code, Professor Ruth A. Miller examines the functions and implications of speech divorced from any human speaker, as well as from any ideological content it might contain. University of Michigan Press: First, Ruth, what does it mean for speech to be “threatening,” aside from a specific verbal threat against another person? There are three ways to approach this question. The first is to think about what sort of speech, historically, has been criminalized or denied protection. Even in the United States, where free speech is often characterized […]

As Occupy Wall Street nears the end of its second month and the future of encampments across the country becomes an increasingly pressing question, Time magazine spoke with When Protest Makes Policy author S. Laurel Weldon for her perspective on what has become an international movement. In the article, Weldon suggested that the two most likely outcomes for any large protest movement are victory or a gradual fading. “Protests are successful when they generate attention or influence the political agenda,” Weldon says as the movement has already spread across over 70 U.S. cities. “Occupy Wall Street protesters want attention to […]

Coinciding with his appearances at Occupy London events, The Times (UK) has recently featured University of Michigan Press author Bill Talen–best known in his Reverend Billy persona–twice within its pages. In the first, occasioned by the reviewer receiving The Reverend Billy Project: From Rehearsal Hall to Super Mall with the Church of Life After Shopping just at the moment when November 5–Guy Fawkes Night–took on the new significance of Bank Transfer Day, The Times’ Erica Wagner said (subscription required): Listening to the Archbishop of Canterbury speak about the protest made me wonder what the Rev would say. … Too few […]